Results for Weekend of 24/25th April

Saturday 24^th April

The 2^nd XI kicked off their assault on Division B of the SNCL with a match against Hucknall at the PCG on Saturday; skipper Rob Tapp had a strong squad to select from and also managed to include 1^st XI VC Ben Thompson in the starting line-up, only short of Robbie Smith.  Tappy won the toss and chose to bowl first.

After a slow and steady start, the Hucknall side soon started batting more fluently and eventually racked up 259 for 5 in their 48 overs; key bowling contributions came from Thommo (2-54) and PK (2-72).  In reply, the Plumtree batsman struggled to find the same fluency but some acceleration came from lower in the order with Thommo again starring with a 57 ball knock of 69 and newcomer Ben Marvin (suggested nicknames on a postcard please) continuing to impress with an unbeaten 57 from 40 balls.  But they couldn’t overhaul the target and ended up with 224-5.  The losing draw therefore left Plumtree with 8 points from the opening game to Hucknall’s 16.

A full scorecard from this game can be found by clicking here.

Next week sees all three Saturday sides playing away; the 1^st XI start at Gedling Colliery, the 2^nd XI are at Clifton Village and the 3^rd XI begin with a fixture at Thurgaton.

Sunday 25^th April

The Sunday 1^st XI opened up last week with a loss away at Papplewick & Linby and this week welcomed Gelding Colliery to the PCG; this was seen to be an interesting roll of the fixture dice as the 1^st XI start their SNCL campaign next side away to the same opposition.  Another strong Plumtree side took to the field with Scott Bailey again taking the helm.

Gedling won the toss and asked Plumtree to bat first and the innings started promisingly until Steve James was unlucky to be stumped by a keeper some 10 yards beyond the stumps as he failed to regain his ground after leaving the ball.  Hassan again showed what a class player his before edging to the keeper on 23.  Overseas star Brad Evans then showed his batting credentials with a patient 50 from 67 balls including one enormous six.   Brad’s wagon wheel below showed how straight he hit the ball all day.  Plumtree managed to close on 151-7 from their 40 overs.

A couple of early wickets from Bobby Gamble set the opposition reeling at 5-2 but a 77 run stand for the 3^rd wicket steadied the ship and at the halfway point, they were making steady progress at and needed 99 from the last 20.  The pace accelerated but was severely dented by Alamgir Khan’s leg-breaks (3-17) and some extremely pacey off breaks from a certain B Evans cut the scoring rate.  Despite Bobby thinking that the game was over when he bowled the 39^th over (despite denials, he was seen shaking the batman’s hand before the 40^th over started), Brad kept his cool and showed a better grasp of mathematics than his bowling partner and Gedling finished 2 runs short.

A full scorecard can be seen by clicking here.

Next weekend’s Sunday fixtures see home and away games against Balderton with PK’s mighty 2^nd XI warriors playing at the PCG.